Grocery stores crowded as power returns in Ark.

Counting customers at Entergy Arkansas and locally owned utilities, more than 260,000 homes and businesses were without power for at least part of the last week after snow and ice blasted the state on Christmas.

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By JEANNIE NUSS, Associated Press

Stuttgart Daily Leader - Stuttgart, AR

By JEANNIE NUSS, Associated Press

Posted Dec. 31, 2012 at 9:30 AM
Updated Dec 31, 2012 at 9:32 AM

By JEANNIE NUSS, Associated Press

Posted Dec. 31, 2012 at 9:30 AM
Updated Dec 31, 2012 at 9:32 AM

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.

As crews worked to restore electricity to thousands of central Arkansas homes still in the dark after a Christmas Day snowstorm, a number of people headed to grocery stores Sunday to replace food they had to throw out after losing power for several days.

Charlotte Anderson filled a shopping cart with milk, meat and other groceries at a Kroger in west Little Rock after losing some food because of the storm. Her power went out shortly after she put a roast in the oven on Christmas Day as a snowstorm pushed its way through the state. She, her husband and their 20-month-old daughter were without electricity until Saturday evening.

"At some point, we're going to look back at this and laugh, but not yet," she said.

Counting customers at Entergy Arkansas and locally owned utilities, more than 260,000 homes and businesses were without power for at least part of the last week after snow and ice blasted the state on Christmas. That number had dropped to about 25,000 as of Sunday evening, and as power returned, people took stock of what they had lost in the storm.

Entergy Arkansas President and CEO Hugh McDonald said there's no way to offer assistance to people who had to throw out their holiday leftovers and other food because of power outages.

"If you have insurance, that's the approach to take. We do not insure food. I don't mean to be flippant, but that's just industry practice," McDonald said.

Mary Cason, 59, said she wasn't planning on reaching out to her insurance company, even though she threw out some food because of the power outage.

"It probably would just make my insurance go up," she said as she shopped for groceries in Little Rock on Sunday.

She said tried to pick up some milk earlier in the week, but then realized her power hadn't come back on yet.

"I picked up milk and I was like, 'What am I doing?' and put it back," said Cason, 59.

A storm system that also produced nearly three dozen tornadoes along the Gulf Coast swept through the Southern Plains beginning Christmas morning. In Arkansas, freezing rain collected on trees, power lines and poles that were later weighed down by up to 15 inches of snow.

The National Weather Service initially predicted the hard-hit Little Rock area would receive 3 to 7 inches of snow. It received about a half-inch of ice before 10.3 inches of snow fell.